Nigerian health authorities launched the country’s mpox vaccination campaign on Monday, targeting healthcare workers and individuals with compromised immune systems in hospitals across the capital, Abuja.
The program comes over a month after its originally scheduled start date.
In August, Nigeria received its first shipment of 10,000 mpox vaccine doses from the United States, following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of mpox as a global public health emergency for the second time in two years.
Nigeria, one of the African nations where mpox is endemic, has reported 94 confirmed cases with no deaths in 2024, according to a recent WHO report.
The vaccination campaign kicked off at the Federal Medical Centre in Abuja, where health workers, equipped with gloves and masks, administered shots to 30 individuals on the first day.
“This is not a mass vaccination but a targeted campaign for healthcare workers and immunocompromised individuals, such as those living with HIV,” said Hafsat Abdullazeez of the Institute of Human Virology in Abuja.
Hardley Ikwe, representing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, stated that the 10-day campaign would focus on Abuja and seven other states, including Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Rivers, which have reported multiple cases.
The WHO has allocated 899,000 vaccine doses to nine African countries most affected by the recent mpox surge.
This initiative aims to curb the spread of the disease in vulnerable regions across the continent.